Advertising The Most Shameless Product Placement in Movies

List Rules Vote up the times product placement distracted you from the actual movie

Product placement in movies is nothing new. It's always been a very efficient way to raise money and keep the film looking like it exists in the real world. "Oh look, a Subway off in the background! I too enjoy a delectable footlong sub from time to time!" But with movies getting more and more expensive, product placement is more and more necessary and brands expect more bang for their buck. A simple Subway sign in the back isn't going to do the trick. Some films stop just shy of having the stars chow down on cold cut combos.

Sometimes overt product placement fits, like in Days of Thunder or Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby because yes, race cars really do have sponsors. Or if the shameless product placement is used for comedy's sake, making fun of the very commercialization that's happening onscreen, like in Wayne's World or, well, Talladega Nights. Those movies did it right. Those are not the movies on this list.

These are the other guys. These are the movies with bad product placement that's so distracting, it completely pulls you out of the story, the movies with moments that feel more like commercials. This list runs through some of the most distractingly blatant product placement in movie history.

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Transformers: Age of Extinction - Beats by Dre, Bud Light

Video: YouTube The Transformers movies are generally this close to being two and a half hour commercials already, but Age of Extinction crosses into "Am I really seeing this?" territory twice. First, Stanley Tucci uses an element that can take the shape of literally anything he imagines to whip up a Beats Pill speaker. Later, an action sequences ends with an alien spaceship crashing into a semi truck hauling several tons of Bud Light. Mark Wahlberg then picks a bottle from among the wreckage and takes a refreshing swig.

Transformers - Mountain Dew, Xbox, Cadillac

Video: YouTube A Michael Bay film is going to be a commercial, especially when it's based on a property designed purely to sell toys. Audiences expected Transformers to be a feature-length car commercial, but when a Mountain Dew dispenser becomes a Transformer, followed immediately by Xbox and Cadillac Transformers... Well, it's hard not feel a little insulted.

The Internship - Google

Video: YouTube This comedy might as well been called Google: The Movie. The two heroes go to work at Google while bragging about Google, using Google, and standing directly in front of the Google logo whenever possible. It's a story device, sure, but it's distracting on such a basic level that it arguably prevents The Internship from ever feeling like a real movie.

I, Robot - Converse

Video: YouTube "Vintage 2004." Really? Even in a movie that lovingly lingers on a futuristic mega-Audi, the moments devoted to Converse sneakers are flagrant. The direct sneaker advertising throughout I, Robot completely takes you out of the movie. ON the plus side, it desensitizes you enough that you barely notice the giant McDonald's and Gap ads when Will Smith walks through Times Square.